About Me

I was a reporter and columnist for 40 years for a chain of newspapers in the suburbs of Chicago. I'm a military veteran having served in the United States Army Combat Engineers (Cpl. E-4) and a Korean War veteran with an Honorable Discharge from the Armed Forces of the United States of America

Thursday, January 31, 2008

A new phenomenon is sweeping across Iraq and Afghanistan---children suicide bombers.

The growing number of children suicide bombers in both war zones has been ignored by the mainstream media in the United States.

U.N. Grapples With Suicide Attacks by ChildrenBy Thalif Deen

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41008UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30 (IPS) - The United Nations is expressing "serious concern" over the growing number of suicide attacks involving children, specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq."This is a relatively new phenomenon, and the United Nations has documented several high-profile cases of children involved in attacks," says a new 45-page report on "Children and Armed Conflict" released Wednesday. Pointing an accusing finger at insurgent groups, including al Qaeda and its affiliated militias in Iraq, and the Taliban in Afghanistan, the study says the United Nations is unable to get any commitments from any of these groups or organisations to end the practice. Asked for her comments, U.N. Under-Secretary-General Radhika Coomaraswamy, special representative of the secretary-general on children and armed conflict, told IPS that suicide bombings involving children raise a whole host of new issues. "We are grappling with the problem of how to deal with this phenomenon," she said. First, are suicide bombers "combatants" in the sense of the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war? Are potential suicide bombers "soldiers" and are these suicide bombers deemed child soldiers? she asked. "Secondly, one purpose of U.N. Security Council resolution 1612 is to enter into action plans with military commanders and get child soldiers released. But how do we do that with suicide bombers or potential suicide bombers?" she asked. Thirdly, those using suicide bombers, such as al Qaeda and others, are the least likely to engage in a dialogue with the United Nations about the release of children, as is done with governments and other insurgent groups accused of recruiting child soldiers

The coverage of the war in Iraq has sunk to such a level that even the U.S. Air Force unleashing tons of bombs on a farming community in Iraq no longer is covered by the mainstream media in the United States.

The Iraq War has now officially become "The Forgotten War--II," a reference to the Korean War which was the first "Forgotten War."

The pack mentality of the mainstream press in the United States has been obsessing on the race for POTUS. The war in Iraq is now just a distant memory.

Bombs Away Over IraqLooking UpNormalizing Air War from Guernica to Arab Jabour By Tom Engelhardt

A January 21st Los Angeles Times Iraq piece by Ned Parker and Saif Rasheed led with an inter-tribal suicide bombing at a gathering in Fallujah in which members of the pro-American Anbar Awakening Council were killed. ("Asked why one member of his Albu Issa tribe would kill another, Aftan compared it to school shootings that happen in the United States.") Twenty-six paragraphs later, the story ended this way:

"The U.S. military also said in a statement that it had dropped 19,000 pounds of explosives on the farmland of Arab Jabour south of Baghdad. The strikes targeted buried bombs and weapons caches.

"In the last 10 days, the military has dropped nearly 100,000 pounds of explosives on the area, which has been a gateway for Sunni militants into Baghdad."

And here's paragraph 22 of a 34-paragraph January 22nd story by Stephen Farrell of the New York Times:

"The threat from buried bombs was well known before the [Arab Jabour] operation. To help clear the ground, the military had dropped nearly 100,000 pounds of bombs to destroy weapons caches and I.E.D.'s."

Farrell led his piece with news that an American soldier had died in Arab Jabour from an IED that blew up "an MRAP, the new Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected armored vehicle that the American military is counting on to reduce casualties from roadside bombs in Iraq."

Everyday we watch as President Bush, Fox News, the parrot for the Bush White House, and most of the mainstream media see who can outdo whom in avoiding telling the American public what is really happening Iraq and Afghanistan.

If ever the phrase "out to lunch" was applicable it should be tagged on to the mainstream media in the United States who have taken a hike and refuse to report on the growing violence in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Below is just a partial list of what happened on Thursday, January 31 in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

For additional information on what is happening in Iraq, you can log onto my blog CORKSPHERE at http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ anytime and read all the latest news from the two war theaters where we have a total of 200,000 young men and women serving in the United States military.....Bill Corcoran, editor and host of CORKSPHERE

Thursday, January 31, 2008War News for Thursday, January 31, 2008Baghdad:#1: A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol near the Zaiyouna bridge in eastern Baghdad's Baladiyat neighborhood, damaging a police vehicle and wounding three policemen on board in addition to three passing civilians, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.Three policemen and three civilians were killed by a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in the Zayouna district of eastern Baghdad, police said.#2: He said that another roadside bomb detonated near the Musa Bin Nassir fuel station in Karradah neighborhood in central the capital, wounding two civilians.#3: The source quoted Iraqi police patrols as saying that a U.S. armored vehicle was set on fire before dawn when a roadside bomb struck the military patrol on the al-Qanat street that passes through al-Amin neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The burning vehicle ignited several secondary explosions more than two hours after the roadside bomb attack, the source said.#4: Two roadside bombs detonated near the convoy of an Iraqi deputy minister of electricity in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, wounding two bodyguards and a civilian, an Interior Ministry source said. "Two roadside bombs detonated simultaneously near the convoy of Salam al-Qazaz, deputy minister of electricity, in the al-Aqari neighborhood near the Palestine Street, wounding two of his bodyguards and a civilian," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.#5: In a separate incident, a roadside bomb went off in the al-Ghadeer neighborhood in eastern the capital wounding four people, the source added.#6: One person was killed and four wounded when a car bomb exploded in Kadhimiya, a Shi'ite district in northwestern Baghdad, police said.Diyala Prv:Baquba:#1: Clashes between gunmen and police in al-Tahrir neighbourhood, central Baquba left 2 civilians wounded#2: 2 women, ages 50 and 55, cousins to the governor of Diyala, Raad al-Mulla were abducted by gunmen who had put up a false checkpoint between al-Abbara area and Baquba city last night. Their fate remains unknown.Khamqeen:#1: Two policemen were wounded on Thursday morning in an armed attack by scores of al-Qaeda gunmen on a governmental building in Khanqeen in Diala, a police source said. "Dozens of al-Qaeda gunmen waged an armed attack at dawn on the headquarters of al-Saadiya district in Khaneqeen, northeast of Baaquba, injuring two policemen and causing some material damage to the building," the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq#2: Suspected al-Qaeda armed men set up a fake checkpoint on the road linking Balad Ruz to Mendli district in Khaneqeen city, where they stopped a civilian car and took its six passengers to unknown place," the source, who preferred anonymity, told Aswat al-IraqBasra:#1: Rockets slammed into the British base near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Thursday, slightly wounding three British soldiers, a spokesman said.A spokesman for the Multi-National Forces in southern Iraq said on Thursday a British helicopter was destroyed when the British base at Basra international airport came under attack and two soldiers were wounded."News indicated that a British chopper had been destroyed at the Basra international airport were groundless," the spokesman told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI) over the phone.Spokesman for the Multi-National Forces in southern Iraq Captain Finn Aldrich had said earlier a British helicopter was destroyed when the British base at Basra international airport came under attack and two soldiers were wounded.Sulaiman Pek:#1: A severed head was found in the town of Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Baiji:#1: A father and his son were shot to death by gunmen near al-Zaitoon restaurant in the north of Baiji. The man was a labourer from the village of Albu Jwari, 5 kn to the north of Baiji.Afghanistan:#1: A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing Helmand province's deputy governor and five other people, officials said. The bomber struck while people were praying inside the mosque in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said. Helmand's deputy governor, Pir Mohammad, was killed in the blast, said Nisar Ahmad, a provincial health official. The blast killed five other people and wounded 18 others, seven seriously, Andiwal said.#2: A car bomb exploded next to an Afghan army bus in Kabul on Thursday, wounding four civilians and a soldier, a police officer said. The blast shattered the bus windows and badly damaged a passing taxi in Kabul's Taimani neighborhood, said police officer Jan Agha.Casualty ReportsPfc. Chris Parish recalled the day last June when the Humvee in which he was a gunner was struck by an explosively formed projectile as his convoy was traveling from one combat outpost to another in Iraq. "I would have bled out," he said, as the picture behind him showed the Humvee in flames, "if it hadn't been for my Battle Buddy. He obviously paid attention in the Combat Lifesaver Course."Pfc. Jesse Garza, who was riding in another vehicle that June day, rushed to the burning Humvee, tore off the canopy and pulled Parish to safety. "I was covered in blood and so was he. He laid me down in the back of a Bradley, applied pressure dressing and a tourniquet. In cutting off my pants legs, he cut into my right leg by mistake. I still have that scar. But I owe him my life." Shrapnel had shredded the 25-year-old soldier's left quadricep and hamstring and damaged his sciatic nerve. Parish has had 10 surgeries on his left leg with at least one more on the horizon.

U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua Cope lost his legs and full use of his right hand in a 2006 roadside blast in Iraq, is rehabilitating at Naval Medical Center San Diego.

And all this took place just on Thursday alone and yet President Bush goes on television and claims the "surge" is working.

SUICIDES WITH IRAQ WAR VETS AT ALL-TIME HIGHThe fallout from the war in Iraq continues to mount as a record level of veteran suicides were recorded for 2007.

Adding to the horrendous upsurge in veteran suicides is the alarming information that the Veterans Administration is woefully under-equipped and under-staffed to deal with all the mental health problems veterans are facing when they return from active duty in Iraq.

The Washington Post in its Thursday edition is reporting on an in-depth study that shows 121 Iraq war veterans committed suicide in 2007. The Bush administration continues their swagger about how well the "surge" is going in Iraq, but the administration has failed miserably in dealing with the after effects of a war that has gone on now longer than World War II and is sending young men and women home without adequate mental health treatment for the alarming rate of suicide attempts that continue to soar.

This blogger was a Cpl. (E-4) in the Combat Engineers in the United States Army during the Korean War and personally saw several of my Platoon make an attempt at suicide. One young soldier drank a can of bore cleaner used to clean rifles and another tried to throw himself in front of an oncoming truck. Nobody has any idea what war does to young men and women unless you have seen it firsthand. The troops in Iraq are on their third and fourth rotations and the stress is enormous.The Bush administration should hang their collective heads in shame for not taking better care of our wounded warriors returning from Iraq.

Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog dedicate and devoted to telling the truth about what is happening to our soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who was waiting for the Army to decide whether to court-martial her for endangering another soldier and turning a gun on herself last year in Iraq, attempted to kill herself Monday evening. In so doing, the 25-year-old Army reservist joined a record number of soldiers who have committed or tried to commit suicide after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"I'm very disappointed with the Army," Whiteside wrote in a note before swallowing dozens of antidepressants and other pills. "Hopefully this will help other soldiers." She was taken to the emergency room early Tuesday. Whiteside, who is now in stable physical condition, learned yesterday that the charges against her had been dismissed.Whiteside's personal tragedy is part of an alarming phenomenon in the Army's ranks: Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006. Click on link above to read the full story of veteran suicides.

We hear a lot of talk from the candidates for POTUS about what they are going to do about the Iraq war, but we seldom ever look at the cost of the Iraq war and what it could provide Americans back here in the United States.Here is a short YouTube video that is breathtaking in just how much money is going to the Iraq war and what those tax dollars could purchase here in the United States.It is worth watching.http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/2008/01/cost-of-war.html

LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain's leading polling groups.

The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.

The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war, the researchers found.

The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September 2007, was 1.7 percent, giving a range of deaths of 946,258 to 1.12 million.

ORB originally found that 1.2 million people had died, but decided to go back and conduct more research in rural areas to make the survey as comprehensive as possible and then came up with the revised figure.

The research covered 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Those that not covered included two of Iraq's more volatile regions -- Kerbala and Anbar -- and the northern province of Arbil, where local authorities refused them a permit to work.Click on link above for the full story.

http://tinyurl.com/2ccp6zIn this short clip from an HBO documentary, you hear an Iraqi woman crying out; "it wasn't like this under Saddam Hussein" as she is rushed by ambulance to a hospital in Baghdad after still another suicide bombing.

FOX NEWS's Brit Hume, John Gibson, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly continue to tell their viewers how well everything is going in Baghdad since the "surge" was launched.

The quartet of so-called journalists from FOX NEWS have a penchant for not reporting on anything that is of a negative nature coming out of Iraq

So it will come as no surprise if FOX NEWS and their top anchors continue the pattern of providing FOX NEWS viewers with only "happy talk" about Iraq and not the reality of what is really taking place in Iraq, and especially Baghdad where the "surge" supposedly has brought about fantastic results according to FOX NEWS.

The fact that 17 bodies have been found in Baghdad---some of them beheaded---will undoubtedly slip by the eyes of Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson.

And FOX NEWS still has the audacity to call themselves "fair and balanced."

By Bill Corcoran, editor of the blog http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ a site which continues to bring updates on what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and not watered down White House "spin."

Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq BAGHDAD, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces found 17 unidentified bodies, some of which were beheaded, in the volatile province of Diyala on Tuesday, a provincial police source said. "A joint Iraqi army and police force discovered 17 bodies believed to be killed by the al-Qaida in Iraq militant group in a rural area near the city of Miqdadiya, 90 km northeast of Baghdad," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Some of the bodies were beheaded and the others were intact, said the source, added that all the victims were shot dead.

The area, where the Iraqi security forces made the gruesome discovery, is a stronghold for Sunni Islamists of al-Qaida who fight the U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

President Bush is making plans to ask Congress for another $70 BILLION dollars to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush also is laying the groundwork for a plan to circumvent Congress and work out a deal with the Iraqi government so the United States military will be in Iraq for the next 50 or more years.

Meanwhile, Australia has announced they are pulling all their troops out of Iraq, and Great Britain has reduced their troop strength in Iraq from 7,000 to 2,000 with more cuts coming very shortly.

The United States, which has 160,000 troops in Iraq, and 30, 000 in Afghanistan, will be left carrying the bulk of the security operations in both countries.Bush told Congress during his SOTU address Monday night that conditions were improving in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Apparently Bush can't read, or nobody is telling him about what is happening in both countries, or maybe he just enjoys telling lies to the American public. He knows Fox News will never call him on it, but someone in the media should be reporting what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My blog CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ is devoted to telling the American public what the mainstream media is NOT telling them about Iraq and Afghanistan. Bill Corcoran, editor and host of this blog dedicated to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.ROCKETS SMASH INTO "GREEN ZONE" IN IRAQVIOLENCE IS ON THE RISE ALL ACROSS IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

Baghdad:#1: a bomb exploded on Saydun Street along the Tigris river in the centre of Baghdad as an Iraqi army patrol was passing, wounding six civilians and four soldiers.#2: Three policemen and five passers-by were wounded in another bomb attack about 30 minutes later in the neighbouring district of Karrada. Two of the wounded later died in hospital#3: In the Sunni district of Yarmuk in western Baghdad, three more civilians were wounded in an explosion3 civilians injured in an IED explosion in al-Dakhiliya neighbourhood, al-Yarmouk, south Baghdad at 10:30 am.#4: two more people were hurt when a mortar round crashed on the eastern neighbourhood of al-Fadliyah.#5: A female suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt hidden under her black robe at a checkpoint, killing at least two women and wounding five.A female suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt hidden under her all-encompassing black robe at a checkpoint Tuesday in Baghdad, killing at least two women and wounding five, police said. The attack occurred just after noon as women were being searched in a room before being allowed to enter a commercial street in the predominantly Sunni Amariyah neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, according to police officials.A bomb exploded at a checkpoint Tuesday in Baghdad, wounding five American soldiers and three civilians, the U.S. military said. Iraqi officials claimed it was a suicide bombing and said two people were killed. The attack occurred just after noon as women were being searched before being allowed to enter a commercial street in the predominantly Sunni Amariyah neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, according to a local police official and an Iraqi army officer. Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a U.S. military spokesman, said initial reporting indicated it was not a suicide attack but a bomb that was left at the checkpoint and later detonated. He said no deaths were reported, but five soldiers and three civilians were wounded. The Iraqi officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, said a female suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt hidden under her all-encompassing black robe at a checkpoint. A policeman said two Iraqis were killed in the attack but the report could not be independently verified.#6: An IED targeted an American military patrol in Canal St. east Baghdad. No casualyies reported.Meanwhile, eyewitnesses told VOI that an explosion occurred on the main road of al-Qanah Street in Zayouna neighborhood, eastern Baghdad, but nothing was known about the blast or its results. One eyewitness told VOI plumes of smoke were seen rising from the scene of the explosion, prompting security forces to seal off the area.#7: In Baghdad, at least two Katyusha rockets landed inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi parliament and U.S. embassy, but there was no immediate indication of casualties or damage, police said. Diyala Prv:Muqdadiya:#1: Nine bodies and 10 severed heads were found on Tuesday in an abandoned field north of Baghdad in a region where U.S. and Iraqi forces are pressing ahead with offensives against al Qaeda forces. Police made the gruesome discovery of the bodies and severed heads in a field in Muqdadiya, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Baghdad in Diyala, one of Iraq's northern provinces where U.S. and Iraqi forces are fighting Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.Iskandariya:#1: One man was killed by gunmen who attacked his house in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.Taji:#1: Abbas Jassim al-Dulaimi, a tribal leader who organised a neighbourhood police unit in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, was killed by a bomb planted in his car on Monday, another Taji tribal leader said. Several of Dulaimi's bodyguards were detained after the blast, he said.Dalouiya#1: Three elementary schoolgirls were killed and two others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off on Tuesday on a road that leads to their school in al-Dalouiya district, a police source in Salah al-Din province said."A home-made explosive charge went off on a road that leads to al-Inshrah primary school in al-Huweija al-Bahariya village, (5 km) west of Dalouiya, killing three girls and wounding two others while on their way to their school," the source, who preferred not to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of IraqSulaiman Pek:#1: Gunmen attacked the convey of a local governor, wounding one of his gaurds, in a village near the town of Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Tikrit:#1: A source in Tikrit University, who asked to remain unnamed, told VOI that security personnel at the Faculty of Law found an IED planted near the dean's office on Tuesday morning."The police were called and the IED was defused," the source said.Mosul:#1: A suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. patrol Tuesday in Mosul, killing at least one Iraqi and wounding as many as 15, military and police officials said. The attacker on Tuesday detonated his explosives-laden car, wounding 10 Iraqi civilians about 11 a.m. in a predominantly Sunni area in eastern Mosul, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information. The U.S. military said no American casualties were reported but one Iraqi had been killed and 15 wounded in the attack. The different Iraqi casualty tolls could not immediately be reconciled.#2: In a separate incident on Tuesday near Mosul, 390 km (240 miles north of Baghdad, unidentified gunmen killed two off-duty police and wounded two others, police said. Al Anbar Prv:Fallujah:#1: “Four missiles landed in the U.S. army base, located 3 km east of Falluja, on Tuesday,” a Falluja police officer, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). He added, “The missile, launched from the southern and eastern sides of the base, landed in the middle of the base where billows of smoke were seen spiraling upward. ”The U.S. side was not available to comment on the incident. A short time later, four U.S. helicopters were seen hovering over Falluja for 25 minutes.Afghanistan:#1: A missile destroyed a suspected militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 12 people inside, officials said. The air attack occurred after midnight in Khushali Torikhel, a village in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, intelligence and government officials in the region said. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.#2: In other fighting Tuesday, one soldier was killed in South Waziristan, a neighboring region along the border, the army said in a statement. Twelve insurgents were arrested in the area, it said.#3: In another area of North Waziristan, four members of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were injured when assailants fired several artillery rockets at a military base, said a local intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.Casualty Reports:May 7, 2007, Baghdad: Lt. Col. Gregory Gadson is driving back from a memorial service..."Then I saw the flash, it was instantaneous out of the corner of my eye. We have a noise canceling intercom system with our vehicles, He was evacuated within 45 minutes by helicopter to a hospital in the Green Zone, and doctors needed 70 pints of blood to save his life. The injuries to both legs were severe, though. Both had to be amputated.Sgt. Kenneth Lee Cate III, 23,-- A suicide bomber detonated behind me, shattering my right leg with shrapnel, and peppering my left thigh and back. And then when I tried to get up I was shot through the right arm. My injuries hurt most days, but only enough to left me know that they're there.Cpl. Ryan Dion, 23, of Manchester, who had his right leg amputated at the knee after he was hit by a missile in Fallujah in April.Staff Sgt. Terry Rathbun, 36, of Norwich, who was shot in the arm and face.Sgt. Eddie Ryan, 24, of Ellenville, N.Y., who suffered a severe brain injury after he was shot twice in the head.Army Staff Sgt. Jack Auble, 43, suffers from severe osteoporosis of the spine, bulging discs and compression fractures.Spc. Garrett Summers, a Squad Automatic Weapon gunner from Eureka, Mo., was wounded in his left arm while on a combat patrol to counter improvised explosive device activity. Summers' platoon conducted a ground medical evacuation, and he arrived at a medical facility within 12 minutes of the attack. After suffering a wound from a 9 mm submachine gun during the enemy encounter. He is a Soldier from 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment has been awarded a Purple Heart Medal for an injury he suffered as a result of small-arms fire while on patrol in eastern Baghdad Jan. 1.

The "coalition of the willing" fighting the war in Iraq has been reduced again as Australia has announced they are pulling their troops out of Iraq

Great Britain has already reduced their troop size from 7,000 down to 2,000.

That leaves the United States military to continue to fight the Iraq war with only a handful of small countries lending support troops.

Because most of the "coalition of the willing" have left Iraq, President Bush is planning on asking Congress for another $70 BILLION to fight the Iraq war.

By Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the only blog dedicated to reporting on what the mainstream media no longer reports--the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Australia Announces Troop Withdrawal From Iraq

http://tinyurl.com/29gqca1/29/2008 12:32:01 AM In a severe blow to US efforts to bring about stability in war-torn Iraq, Australia has announced its decision to withdraw its military troops from the country.

The announcement comes even as President George Bush in his last State of the Union address said that the al-Qaida is on the run in Iraq.Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith conveyed his country's decision to US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary Robert Gates and Vice President Dick Cheney on his first official visit to Washington since Kevin Rudd Government's election last year.

"We came to office in November last year with our longstanding commitment that we would withdraw our combat troops from Iraq by the middle of this year," Smith said."I advised the Secretary of State that when the current rotation from the Overwatch Battle Group is completed in the course of the first half of this year, those troops will be withdrawn," he said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will ask the U.S. Congress next week for $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and related operations for part of the 2009 fiscal year, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The new request is likely to set up another battle with Democrats who control Congress and are critical of President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war. Congress has yet to approve most of Bush's fiscal 2008 war funding request.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the administration probably will not submit another war funding request after this one before leaving office next January. That would make war funding one of the first issues facing the next president.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress has approved $691 billion to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and such related activities as Iraq reconstruction, the Congressional Budget Office said last week.

Of the total, the CBO estimated that $440 billion had been spent on the war in Iraq.

Monday, January 28, 2008

President Bush delivered his last State of the Union Address Monday night and in typical fashion he praised how the "surge" was working in Iraq.

Bush apparently doesn't know how to read, or he has advisers who are shielding him from the true facts that are happening in Iraq.

On the very day Bush delivered his upbeat speech about Iraq, the following violent events took place in Baghdad and across Iraq and in Afghanistan. (see below).

Bush continues to LIE to the American public about what is taking place in Iraq, and his "happy talk" about Iraq is an insult to every woman and man serving in the United States military in Iraq who know things in Iraq are not what Bush says they are.

The DoD is reporting the death of a soldier in the Brooke Army Medical Center on Friday, January 25th. Pfc. Duncan Charles Crookston was wounded in an IED attack in Baghdad on some unnamed date.The Jerusalem Post is reporting the deaths of five soldiers in a roadside bomb attack in Ninevah province on Monday, January 28th. No other details were released.Security incidents:

Baghdad:#1: A roadside bomb struck a minibus carrying a coffin and mourners to a funeral in the predominantly Shiite southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing three passengers and wounding five, a police officer said. The bomb apparently was meant for a police patrol but missed its target and blew up near the bus instead, a police officer said.

#2: Elsewhere in Baghdad, a fire swept through the top four floors of Iraq's Central Bank building before dawn, engulfing the documents holding room as well as several offices of key officials, another police officer said. The blaze broke out about 4 a.m. in the central bank governor's office, and an investigation was under way to determine the cause and extent of the damage, the officer said. He said firefighters had the flames under control after about four hours.

#3: The leader of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood police patrol was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his car in northern Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said.#4: Police found ( 2 ) unidentified dead bodies in Baghdad today : one was found in Doura ( south Baghdad) in Karkh bank .While the other one was found in Baladiyat ( east Baghdad) in Risafa bank.Basra:#1: At dawn , a roadside bomb targeted a foreign company’s convoy on Safwan road ( west of Basra) . Two security guards were killed in that incident who work for “ Heart” which is responsible for transferring generators from Kuwait to Iraq.Kirkuk:#1: Iraqi crude oil exports from northern Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's Ceyhan port have been suspended since Friday, a shipping agent at the terminal said Monday. The agent said Kirkuk crude oil pumping to Ceyhan was suspended at 2000 local time Friday. Iraq only resumed the flow last Wednesday after a two-week suspension on a fault that occurred at one point of the export pipeline.

Mosul:#1: At least 60 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 280 wounded in a blast that rocked the northern Iraqi city of Mosul last week, the Iraqi Red Crescent said in a report.#2: The official spokesman for the Ninewa operations on Monday said that three civilians were wounded in clashes between U.S. forces and gunmen in southeastern Mosul."U.S. troops cordoned off Sumer neighborhood in southeastern Mosul, where clashes broke out in the region with gunmen, leaving three civilians wounded," Brigadier Khaled Abdul Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq#3: Five American soldiers were killed Monday in a complex attack in the northern city of Mosul, described as one of al-Qaida in Iraq's last strongholds, just days after a house explosion and suicide attack killed as many as 60 people there. Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq, said the soldiers came under small arms fire and were hit by a roadside bomb in the city, which is the capital of Ninevah province.

#4: Two policemen were killed and two others were injured by unidentified gunmen in southern Mosul, a police source said on Monday. "Unidentified gunmen opened fire at four policemen on the Baghdad road in southern Mosul while on their way back home, killing two and injuring two," the source told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI) under condition of anonymity.Al Anbar Prv:Fallujah:#1: The emergency police of Amiriyat AlFalluja ( west of Baghdad) had clashes with gunmen in the area from the afternoon till the sunset killing one of them ( Tariq Bdr Al-Deen ) the brain of the group which makes car and vest bombs .The police force asks for support from Aifan Sheik’s Sahwa in the area to control the situation.

Afghanistan:#1: One soldier was killed and nine were injured in Pakistan's tribal region by Afghanistan when security forces clashed on Monday with the militants loyal to a pro-Taliban commander blamed for the murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, the military said. 'Heavy fighting is being reported in the surrounding areas of Kot Kai (in South Waziristan tribal district). In exchange of fire with miscreants one soldier embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and 5 others got injured,' said a statement issued by the Pakistan Army. Four more soldiers were injured in a firefight on Sunday night in Nawazkot area of the same district.

Will President Bush mention the five GIs killed on Monday, January 28 in Mosul, Iraq when he gives the State of the Union Address tonight?

In a pigs eye. No way.

President Bush, like the mainstream media, no longer talks about the death of Americans in Iraq. They are cannon fodder and that is all.

Bush will more than likely be singing the praises of the "surge" and never mentioning the death of the five soldiers on Monday in Iraq or the fact there is violence all over Iraq.

Just how long is the press going to allow this hoax to continue?

Bill Corcoran, editor/host of the blog http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ dedicated to telling the truth about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because President Bush and media will not.

U.S. army says 5 soldiers killed in Iraq

http://tinyurl.com/2sy73a

Ninewa - Voices of IraqMonday , 28 /01 /2008 Time 9:05:45

Baghdad, Jan 28, (VOI) - The U.S. army said on Monday that five servicemen were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul."Five U.S. servicemen were killed in Mosul this afternoon when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb," Abdellatif Rayan, media adviser for the Multi-National Force-Iraq, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI) over the phone.

He did not add further details.

The official spokesman for the Ninewa operations had said earlier that three civilians were wounded in clashes between U.S. forces and gunmen in southeastern Mosul.

"U.S. troops cordoned off Sumer neighborhood in southeastern Mosul, where clashes broke out in the region with gunmen, leaving three civilians wounded," Brigadier Khaled Abdul Sattar said."They were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment," he added.

The deaths bring the number of the U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to 3,940, according to statistics released by the U.S. army.

Of this number, 36 U.S. soldiers have been killed so far in January 2008.

November 2004, which witnessed fierce battles between U.S. forces and armed groups in Falluja city, Anbar province, remains the month that saw the highest U.S. death toll with 137.

April 2004 comes second with 135, followed by May 2007 during which 126 U.S. soldiers were killed.

The Department of Veterans Affairs in conjunction with the Pentagon has released startling statistics regarding casualties from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.The full report can be read here:http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/files/VFCS/VCS_VA_Fact_Sheet_01-17-2008.pdfThere have been 263,909 veterans treated and of those treated 100,580 patients (or 38% of patients) have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. 52,375 patients were diagnosed with PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.Equally disturbing is the fact that 245,034 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (34% of veterans) have filed a disability claim. 38,693 of those veterans filing a claim with the VBA (Veterans Benefit Association) are still waiting for an answer.And here is a statistic bound to blow the mind of any caring American. The average wait time for the VBA to process a claim is MORE THAN SIX MONTHS.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Very few people in the United States have even an inkling of what is taking place in Iraq because the media is fixated on the race for POTUS.

Reports of violence in Iraq are no longer carried on cable news stations, and even the deaths of American GIs no longer are mentioned.

The Iraq war has become the 21st century edition of "The Forgotten War" just like the Korean War was "The Forgotten War" in the 20th Century.

Two outstanding reporters who are determined not to allow the Iraq war be put on the back burner are Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail of IPS News.

These two outstanding journalists continue to bring their readers information that should be covered by the mainstream media in the United States but isn't anymore.

This blog is devoted to sharing reports with our readers from all over the Middle East about conditions on the ground in Iraq.

Here is just one of them that tells a story that you will NEVER see in the mainstream media in the United States.

By Bill Corcoran, editor/host of CORKSPHEREhttp://corksphere.blogspot.com/ the only blog in America dedicated exclusively to bringing readers information from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.IRAQ: 'US the Biggest Producer of Terror'

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40924By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*BAQUBA, Jan 25 (IPS) - Broken promises have brought a dramatic increase in anti-U.S. sentiment across the capital city of Iraq's Diyala province.Many people in Baquba, capital of Diyala 40 km northeast of Baghdad, had supported U.S. forces when they ousted former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But failed reconstruction projects and muddled policies mean the U.S. has lost that support. "The Americans based their strategy in Iraq on certain Shias here who have direct enmity with Sunnis and allegiance to Iran," resident Ayub Ibrahim told IPS. "This was the source of the gap between certain Shias which the U.S. backs, and certain Sunnis they back." Shias and Sunnis are different sects within Islam. The U.S. has also alienated people through its policy of extensive detentions. Many believe that raids that lead to arrests are based on motivated information given to the U.S. military by Shia militiamen who have infiltrated the Iraqi army and police. "We never witnessed an attempt to arrest Shia people either by the U.S. army or the Iraqi police and army," resident Abdul Sattar al-Badri told IPS. Most people see no reasonable basis for many of the arrests.In November the International Committee of the Red Cross said that around 60,000 people are currently detained in Iraq. "The Americans occupied our country and put our men in prisons," Dhafir al-Rubaiee, an officer from Iraq's previous army told IPS. "The majority of these prisoners have been arrested for nothing other than for being Sunni. Every one of these prisoners has a family, and these families now have reason to hate Americans." Others blame the lack of security and the destroyed infrastructure for the increasing anti-U.S. sentiment. "The lack of security is a direct result of the occupation," resident Abu Ali told IPS. "The Americans crossed thousands of miles to destroy our home and kill our men. They are the reason for all our disasters." Another resident, speaking on condition of anonymity added, "We lived in need during the period of the Saddam government, but we were safe. We were compelled to work sometimes 20 hours a day to earn our living, but we were happy to see our children and relatives together." U.S. forces, he said, have ended all that.

For keen observers of the Iraq war, it should come as no surprise that the Bush administration LIED to the American public 935 times to get us into the Iraq quagmire.

From the moment President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their cohorts settled into the White House, they started making plans to invade and occupy Iraq. They were not going to be deterred.

Anyone like Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative, were "swift-boated" by the Bush administration and their puppet FOX NEWS when Wilson revealed he found no evidence Saddam Hussein was buying "yellow cake" (uranium) from Niger, Africa.

The lies continued with Vice President Cheney claiming there had been a meeting between Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, and loyalists to Saddam Hussein. The meeting never took place.

Cheney also kept saying there were weapons of mass destruction even after UN inspectors said there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Cheney also claimed the 9/11 hijackers had ties to Saddam Hussein, which later proved to be totally false.

Colin Powell, who was then Secretary of State, went before the UN and claimed the tubes shown in pictures were for rocket launchers when it later turned out they were storage cylinders.

All the while the Bushies were pushing for war with Iraq, the lies kept building up and not one person in the media challenged the authenticity of what the Bush White House was telling the press and the American public.

Now a study has revealed the Bush White House lied 935 time to get the United States into the Iraq war. Nearly 4,000 young Americans have died, and the latest injury figures are put at 29,000. There are estimates that upward of 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the U.S. invaded Iraq.

There is no end in sight for the Iraq war and the "surge" has had little impact on the violence that continues on a daily basis throughout Iraq.

For additional proof of the ongoing violence in Iraq turn to CORKSPHERE http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog devoted exclusively to the Iraq andAfghanistan wars.

President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's case for war.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.

In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003. Not surprisingly, the officials with the most opportunities to make speeches, grant media interviews, and otherwise frame the public debate also made the most false statements, according to this first-ever analysis of the entire body of prewar rhetoric.

Click on link above for the full story about how the Bushies lied 935 times to get the U.S into war with Iraq.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Will it be ten years, or less than ten years? That is the question that is being asked about how long U.S. troops are going to be in Iraq.

If it were up to President Bush, U.S. troops would be in Iraq for next 50 or more years. Bush plans to circumvent Congress and work with the Iraqi government in establishing a virtual permanent U.S. presence in Iraq.

An Iraqi Minister claims the U.S. troops will be out of Iraq within 10 years, but that is only a guesstimate.

There is also a great deal of talk that Iraq has failed to meet most of the 18 benchmarks putdown by the Bush administration. This could mean U.S. troops could be in Iraq as long as U.S. troops have been in Germany, Japan and Korea.

However, there is one major difference between our troops in Germany, Japan and Korea. They are not being fired upon night and day.

By Bill Corcoran, editor and host of CORKSPHERE: http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, a blog devoted entirely to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which the mainstream media no longer covers.

The Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, caused anger among Iraqis this month by saying during the New Hampshire primary that US military forces might stay in Iraq "for 100 years". Mr Zebari, asked by The Independent in Baghdad if the American army would be in Iraq in 10 years, said: "Really, I wouldn't say so."

Mr Zebari is much more confident than he was a year ago that "al-Qa'ida has been crushed, its network has been shattered" though it has not been completely eliminated. He says he thinks it dangerous if the Shia-Kurdish government, of which he is one of the most powerful members, does not pay and absorb into its own security forces the 70,000-strong Sunni Awakening movement which is fighting al-Qa'ida.

"That is the danger," said Mr Zebari. "The Awakening movement is not that well organised and it could be easily manipulated by al-Qa'ida." He added that it was an illusion that the Sunni political parties and their leaders "represent the Sunni community".

Mr Zebari originally made his name as the energetic spokesman and foreign representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party during its long years of resistance to Saddam Hussein. He has been the most successful of Iraqi ministers since he was appointed in 2004, cultivating good relations with the US and Iran. Three years ago, insurgents tried to assassinate him using a vehicle packed with a tonne of explosives, including a naval torpedo, which was detected near his home before it was detonated.

For all Mr Zebari's optimism, Iraq remains an extraordinary violent country. Yesterday, a suicide bomber in a police uniform killed Brigadier-General Salih Mohammed Hasan, the chief of police of Mosul, northern Iraq's largest city. He had been inspecting the ruins of a building in which 20 civilians had been killed and 150 wounded in an explosion the previous day.You can read the rest of this story by clicking on link above.

The news media in the United States wants everyone to believe Iraq is a sea of tranquility.

However, violence is still erupting in Baghdad and across Iraq and the country is anything but secure.

WHAT HAPPENED SATURDAY IN BAGHDAD

Baghdad:

#1: One of the explosions was a roadside bomb that targeted a U.S. patrol in eastern Baghdad. A police officer said the blast site was sealed by American forces and there was no immediate way to detail damage or casualties. There was no immediate report of the incident from the U.S. military.

#2: Another police officer confirmed a mortar round hit the heavily protected Green Zone. The Americans did not report damage or casualties from that incident either. Both officers spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to release the information.

#3: Iraqi troops foiled an attempt to kidnap a businessman in central Baghdad and arrested the kidnapers, a security source said on Saturday. "Iraqi army troops managed, Friday evening, to arrest 14 gunmen clad in police while trying to kidnap a businessman in al-Andalus square, central Baghdad," the source told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI) .The source added that five police-like-4wheel drive vehicles were also confiscated during the arrest. The source provided no further details. On Friday, a security source told VOI that Iraqi forces detained 14 gunmen clad in police near al-Andalus square.

Alas, the milk of human kindness does not necessarily extend to orphans from Iraq – the country we invaded for supposedly humanitarian reasons, not to mention weapons of mass destruction. For as their British uncle waited for them at Queen Alia airport, Jordanian security men – refusing him even a five-minute conversation with the girls – hustled the sisters back on to the plane for Iraq.

"How could they do this?" their uncle, Paul Manouk, asks. "Their mum has been killed. Their father had already died. I was waiting for them. The British embassy in Jordan said they might issue visas for the three – but that they had to reach Amman first." Mr Manouk lives in Northern Ireland and is a British citizen. Explaining this to the Jordanian muhabarrat at the airport was useless.

Western mercenaries killed their 48-year-old Iraqi Armenian mother, Marou Awanis, and her best friend – firing 40 bullets into her body as she drove her taxi near their four-vehicle convoy in Baghdad – but tragedy has haunted the family for almost a century; the three sisters' great-grandmother was forced to leave her two daughters to die on their own by the roadside during the 1915 Armenian genocide. Mrs Awanis' friend, Jeneva Jalal, was killed instantly alongside her in the passenger seat.

The Australian "security" company whose employees killed Mrs Awanis and her friend – "executed" might be a better word for it, because that is the price of driving too close to armed Westerners in Baghdad these days – expressed its "regrets". The chief operating officer of Unity Resources Group claims that she drove her car at speed towards the company's employees and that they feared she was a suicide bomber.

"Only then did the team use their weapons in a final attempt to stop the vehicle," Michael Priddin said. "We deeply regret the loss of these lives." He refused to identify the killers or their nationality. Westerners in Baghdad – especially those who kill the innocent – are once they are known, rich in regrets. But they are less keen to ensure that the bereaved they leave behind are cared for.

An investigation has been launched by the Iraqi government in conjunction with the U.S. military to determine what exactly took place in Mosul when several buildings were blown up by U.S. forces resulting in the deaths of over 50 Iraqi civilians and injuring close to 200.Mosul, Jan 25, (VOI)- The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) said on Friday that it held Iraqi and U.S. troops responsible for the bombings in al-Zanjili neighborhood in western Mosul, which left hundreds of people killed or wounded on Wednesday.

Unidentified gunmen blew up a building in al-Pepsi street in Zanjili region in western Mosul.The Ninewa provincial council chief had said on Thursday that the attacks in al-Zanjili, western Mosul, on Wednesday have claimed the lives of 55 civilians and wounded 169 others.

"U.S. troops, in coordination with Iraqi security forces, detonated a building in al-Zanjili neighborhood using barrels of explosives," the AMS said in a statement.

Friday, January 25, 2008

You have to go to local newspapers and television stations to find reports on wounded veterans from the Iraq war because the mainstream media feels the wounded veterans are not that newsworthy.

Here are just four accounts culled from the local media across the United States re veterans wounded in Iraq and their long upward rehabilitation fight.

They are worth reading. Also, bear in mind the mainstream media in the United States no longer feels their stories are newsworthy. They have bigger fish to fry like what is happening with Britney Spears.

By Bill Corcoran, editor and host of this blog dedicated to the brave young men and women who serve our country in Iraq and Afghanistan and who have been forgotten by the mainstream press in the United States.

A year later Steve Holloway remains determined to beat his paralysis. Three times a week, the 34-year-old war veteran spends an hour in the therapeutic pool at Palms West Hospital. So far, he's gained movement in a hamstring and toe, he's worked himself out of a crouch and, most strikingly, he can walk in the water. On his stomach — from his sternum past his belly button — is a sign of war. The deep, inset scar bisects his belly where surgeon after surgeon sewed him back together. There's a scar on his back, too. That's where the Iraqi insurgent's 7.62mm bullet exited Holloway's body, taking with it his ability to walk. the bullet struck on Jan. 15, 2007.Jaime Antolec, 28, got blown up on the Fourth of July. A roadside bomb in Baghdad exploded under the U.S. Army sergeant's tank, shattering his ankles, and leaving him bloody and unconscious -- but alive.

Marine Sgt. Gregory Edwards took his last step Oct. 21, 2006. Alpha Company was on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq, conducting house-to-house searches when a hidden explosive detonated. The blast left Sgt Edwards a double amputee with a shattered left hand. He has endured 37 surgeries and a painful physical regimen that he devised himself to strengthen the tender stumps that end just above his knees.

David Corley was on patrol when he was shot in the jaw by enemy fire. The bullet shattered his jaw and exited through his neck. He was immediately flown to Germany and treated by a spinal surgeon. They discovered the bullet just barely missed a majory artery in his neck. Corley is now recovering in a San Antonio hospital. "He's not moving his right arm at all. He has a tremendous amount of pain in his shoulders, neck and arms. And of course he can't speak with a trake, and his jaw is wired together," his father Ronald said.

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/Baghdad:#1: Also Thursday, a roadside bombing in central Baghdad killed two police officers and wounded six people, an Interior Ministry official said. The bombing, in Andalus Square, targeted a police patrol about 8 a.m. Three of the wounded were police and the other three were civilians.#2: Two civilians were injured in an IED explosion in Ghadeer neighborhood east Baghdad around 4,00 pm.#3: A civilian was injured in an IED explosion in Zafaraniyah district southeast Baghdad around 4,30 am.#4: Police found three anonymous bodies in Baghdad today. Two bodies were found in Doura neighborhood in Karkh, the western side of Baghdad while the third body was found in Ma’amil neighborhood in Rusafa, the eastern side of Baghdad.Mahaweel:#1: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one civilian and wounded two others in Mahaweel, 75 km (45 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.Iskandariya:#1: One body was found in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.Samarra:#1: Gunmen abducted seven oil tanker drivers on Wednesday near Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The drivers were transporting oil from the Baiji oil refinery to western Anbar province.Delouyia:#1: Gunmen on Thursday targeted a patrol of Delouyia awakening council in al-Mashru’a village, east of Delouyia, leaving four of the council members wounded”, Hameed al-Ahmed, the chief of Delouyia awakening council, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq (VOI).He added “the awakening council fighters and police forces, backed by U.S. helicopters, conducted a blitz in the accident site, clashing with the gunmen”.The tribal official pointed out “three gunmen were killed and two others arrested”.Mosul:#1: A suicide bomber killed Nineveh province's director of police in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, the U.S. military said. The bomber struck at the site of another deadly explosion the day before, killing the provincial police official and two other Iraqi officers, the U.S. military said. An Iraqi army soldier and a coalition forces soldier were also wounded in the attack.A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman killed Mosul's police chief and two other officers on Thursday as they visited the scene of an earlier blast, Iraqi officials and the US military said. They said five policemen and a journalist were wounded in the attack, which prompted authorities in Iraq's main northern city to impose an immediate and indefinite ban on vehicle traffic. "Two Iraqi police were killed in the blast, and one Iraqi army and one coalition force soldier was injured. "Brigadier General Salah, the provincial director of police, was also killed in the blast.#2: (update) The death toll from a bomb blast which obliterated a building in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul has risen to 34, with at least 217 people wounded, a provincial official said on Thursday. "More than 100 houses were damaged," Hisham al-Hamdani, head of the provincial council of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, told AFP.Al Anbar Prv:Khalidiya:#1: Police forces killed a suicide bomber trying to blow up himself outside the police station in Khalidiya town of Anbar province on Thursday, a security source said.Afghanistan:#1: At least eight policemen were killed Thursday during an operation by U.S.-led coalition troops in central Afghanistan, an Afghan official said. The officers died in the village of Ghariban in Ghazni province during an operation that included U.S. ground forces and airstrikes, said the deputy head of Ghazni's provincial council, Habeb-ul Rahman. It was unclear whether Afghan troops also took part in the raid. Two other villagers, including a woman, were killed in the clash, Rahman said. It was not immediately clear how the officers and civilians were killed. Afghan police officials in Ghazni province, who spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that policemen appeared to have been killed by airstrikes, which also destroyed several houses.Nine police and two civilians were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, a provincial doctor said on Thursday, but the coalition said Taliban fighters had been killed. "Nine police, including an officer, two civilians, one of them a woman, were killed in the raid," he told Reuters. Five police were wounded, he said, adding they were in a vehicle patrolling the area when it was hit in the air strike.#2: Separately, a soldier from the NATO-led force was killed and two were wounded when a blast hit their vehicle in southern Afghanistan, an alliance spokesman said on Thursday. He did not identify the victims of Wednesday's attack.At approximately 1:40 p.m. local time (in Kandahar) today, one Canadian soldier who was part of a convoy was killed when the armoured vehicle he was in struck a suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED), 35 km South-West of Kandahar City. Two Canadian soldiers were also injured.#3: A Kiwi soldier has been injured in a helicopter accident in Afghanistan but the crash was not the result of enemy fire, according to the New Zealand Defence Force. The soldier, a member of the New Zealand peacekeeping force stationed in the troubled country, received minor injuries in the helicpoter crash, Captain Zac Prendergast said. No one else was injured in the accident.Casualty Reports:

Brad Thomas, 22, suffered a serious head wound and other injuries Saturday from a roadside bomb during combat operations in Iraq. He was airlifted to American medical facilities in Germany, and his family remains hopeful he will pull through.

Specialist James Robak and his unit were searching homes in Sinsil, Iraq looking for bombs and Al Qaeda members. Along with Gaul, and four others, the explosion also killed sergeant first class Matthew Pionk of Eveleth, Minnesota. Robak was wounded as his sniper unit searched a suspected Al Qaeda compound for weapons. "I was on the roof along with two other guys, something set off the house and the whole house exploded," he said, "We lost six guys and four were injured and our [interpreter] was killed." Robak survived with a wounded leg and some minor cuts. For his father worrying comes with the job, but he was aware of the danger his son was facing before the explosion.